


Running the Numbers

by Muir_Wolf



Category: Big Bang Theory, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-29
Updated: 2012-06-29
Packaged: 2017-11-08 20:18:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/pseuds/Muir_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Penny showed up with Dr. Cooper, who Tony promptly stole away, and the two ladies spent the rest of the night getting spectacularly drunk and trading my-scientist-is-more-of-an-idiot-than-yours stories.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running the Numbers

  


Penny sings in the shower. Pepper leans over her tablet, trying not to wince at the off-key pitches Penny hits. Strictly speaking, Pepper's running late, but less strictly speaking, there are some perks to being CEO. Perks like taking the morning off to hang out with her girlfriend.

Penny's been busy promoting her newest film, and Pepper's not about to let her few free days go to waste. For one thing, Tony would never let her live it down. For another, Tony's already offered to show her around, and Pepper's not willing to let her girlfriend be kidnapped and held hostage by evil aliens this early in their relationship, which would, of course, be precisely what happened if she turned Penny over into his clutches.

Not that Penny can't take care of herself—that's one of the things that Pepper loves about her. (Likes about her. Way too early for anything stronger than like.) But one thing would probably lead to another, and then Natasha'd be teaching her spy moves and Penny'd either break something (which would push back filming on her new project) or she'd take to it like a fish to water, and Pepper would be left waiting for yet another person she loves (likes) to die horribly while saving the world. And Pepper's had _quite_ enough of that, thank you very much.

No, she much prefers things as they are, even if it means that she doesn't get to see Penny near as often as she'd like. (Tony's said she can hitch a ride with him any time, not seeming to understand that Pepper prefers riding in their private plane to clinging to Iron Man as he hurtles through the air. To be fair, Pepper's long known that Tony's kind of an idiot. She also made him promise never to so much as offer that to Penny, because Penny's also kind of an idiot, and knowing her luck would accept, and Pepper is also not losing her girlfriend to Tony dropping her after being attacked mid-flight.)

They met about a year ago, now, and they've been dating for the last seven months. Penny showed up to one of Tony's big scientist parties, which were usually the most painful things in existence, but which Tony always dragged Pepper to out of purely malicious intent. Penny showed up with Dr. Cooper, who Tony promptly stole away, and the two ladies spent the rest of the night getting spectacularly drunk and trading my-scientist-is-more-of-an-idiot-than-yours stories. (Pepper won, but by a much smaller margin than she'd imagined she would going in.)

And then Penny'd kept in touch with her, and they'd texted back and forth for the next month, and it wasn't until a few weeks after _that_ that Pepper realized just _who_ Penny was, and that was only because Penny invited her to a friend's movie premiere, and suddenly the mikes were pointed at the both of them, asking Pepper the usual questions, but asking Penny questions about her new movie, and—

Well, later that night she'd had JARVIS pull her Wikipedia and IMDB up, and Tony had crawled off to run full background checks on her (he insisted he hadn't, but as if Pepper has _ever_ not known what Tony was up to), and Clint had suddenly popped around and asked Pepper five hundred questions about Penny's latest movie, and. Well, basically Pepper had felt like a complete idiot.

Penny stayed in the tower the next time she was in town, and Pepper'd run around fluffing pillows before she arrived, ignoring Tony's overblown promises to build pillow-fluffing robots if only Pepper would _stop_ , and finally kicking Tony out entirely. She'd been a bit worried that Penny had only accepted because she wanted to see the Avengers (which had happened before), but Penny just sprawled across the couch and pulled out three bottles of mid-range wine she'd picked up on the way and announced that she and Pepper were going to drink and talk and order pizza and maybe watch movies, because Penny needed a normal night, and by the looks of things so did Pepper.

They sort of fell into a pattern, and whenever Penny was in town she'd kidnap Pepper away, and somehow they never did end up drinking the expensive wine Pepper always offered, which meant that Pepper usually woke up with a wine-headache the next morning.

The kissing bit came later.

She waited a long, long, long, _long_ time to mention that part to Tony.

(He'd made the expected comments, and then run off to go run a million more background checks on Penny and all her known associates, and then gone off to discretely interrogate Dr. Cooper.)

Penny insisted she teach her how to shoot a gun when she learned that Pepper still hadn't gotten around to it. (“Are you kidding me? Your home gets routinely broken into by supervillains, and you don't know how to shoot a gun? Well we're fixing that right now. No, I don't mean tonight, I mean _right now._ ”) She'd also dragged her out to premieres and events with the exact same excuse that Tony always gave (“if I have to suffer so do you”) which maybe was a bit telling about Pepper's taste in people.

But then she also called her up late at night just to talk, and liked to brush Pepper's hair out before bed. She liked it when Pepper called her pet names, but liked it better when Pepper cussed, and she liked to eat her out on the kitchen table, her dressing gown askew, last night's wine glasses sitting empty on the counter.

They held hands in public, even when Pepper had asked her (repeatedly) about how it might affect her acting career. She'd called her her girlfriend on Conan just two weeks ago, lifting her chin almost defiantly, because Penny's always so ready for a fight. JARVIS had monitored the message boards and the public sentiment after that little bomb without Pepper even asking him to, and Bruce had made her tea as she waited for Penny to _pick up the fucking phone_ , knowing she was probably talking to her agent, to her scientist boys, to people that she couldn't just hang up on.

(And then she had, and called her back, apology thick in her voice, and Pepper had—Pepper had—)

Just a morning off, though, it's not so much to ask. Not in the scheme of things.

She has to keep her out of Tony's hands, at least; she knows how eager he is to deliver his “break her heart and—” threats, especially now that he has the full force of Iron Man to back him up. She finishes skimming the weekly numbers and sets her tablet down, because Penny's coming out of the shower, her hair wet on her shoulders, her towel slipping loose in front.

“You're still here,” Penny says, surprised and a bit delighted, and Pepper grins, trying for put-upon and landing nowhere near.

“If I leave you alone in this tower, odds are you'll be a hostage in under two hours,” she says. “Trust me, I've run the numbers.”

“Sounds like you'd better stick around, then,” Penny smirks. She steps closer, straddles Pepper's legs, the towel slipping up to bare her thighs.

“Better safe than sorry,” Pepper agrees, leaning up for a kiss.

Penny smiles into her mouth, her fingers sure as they work Pepper's buttons, and Pepper considers the time, switches things around on her mental schedule. She has a few sick days, after all. And she's got a little tickle in her throat.

She tangles her hand in Penny's tumble of hair, and licks into her mouth. She'll call in later, for now she should probably get back into bed.

Better safe than sorry, right?

  
_Finis_   



End file.
